by Robert Pondiscio
November 10th, 2009
Tags: high-stakes testing, parental anxiety, Parents
Posted in Assessment and Testing, Parents, accountability | No Comments »
Parental anxiety is ruining playtime, notes the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss. It’s not news that lots of preschool parents have become “super-anxious trying to give their kids a leg up on kindergarten,” Strauss writes at The Answer Sheet. “But I didn’t realize just how nutty things had become until I talked to several dozen preschool program directors.”
Among the examples she cites: parents begging school directors to let their 1 1/2 -year-olds into programs for 2-year-olds “because Danny and Olivia are so incredibly advanced”; demanding to know why 2-year-olds aren’t being given the alphabet to copy over and over and memorize; and enrolling their kids in so many activities that three year olds fall asleep at their desks.
“People! This is the only time your child has to be a child!” she writes. I was in complete agreement until I got to this line: “The reason for all of this is No Child Left Behind, which has pushed curriculum down into the earliest grades and put the focus on high-stakes standardized tests that start as early as third grade.”
“I’m sorry, but blaming NCLB for elite parents pushing preschoolers too hard on academics and activities is BS,” says New America’s Sara Mead on Twitter. Agreed. A generation ago, New York Magazine wrote a cover story about the fierce competition among Manhattan parents to get Danny and Olivia into just the right preschool, just the right prep school, just the right college–and the relentless pressure on even the youngest kids. The legendary cover line: “Give Me Harvard or Give Me Death.”
There’s plenty wrong with NCLB and blunt-force accountability. But if it disappeared tomorrow, Danny and Olivia would not suddenly be kickin’ it on the playground. Well, maybe for 1o minutes after piano lessons and before the gourmet cooking class…
by Robert Pondiscio
March 20th, 2009
Tags: cheating, high-stakes testing
Posted in Assessment and Testing, Education Practice | No Comments »
Teachers are becoming bigger cheaters than their students on standardized tests, according to a British study. Allegations of British invigilators (that’s what they call proctors in the Mother Country) ”over-aiding” pupils is on the rise.
“Teachers’ leaders have warned that their members are under increasing pressure to make sure their pupils do well in tests because of schools’ desire for a good showing in government league tables listing primary school results,” Britain’s Independent newspaper reports.
I haven’t seen hard data on “over-aiding” in U.S. schools but I suspect it’s not uncommon, especially in struggling schools. Teachers in my elementary school were ordered by the district to engage in ”active proctoring,” continually moving among students, during state exams. We were expected not to sit down. Active proctoring, we were told, had been demonstrated to result in higher test scores.
I suspect if that’s true it’s because “active proctoring” encourages “over-aiding.”
by Robert Pondiscio
June 30th, 2008
Tags: accountability, ed schools, high-stakes testing, math, New York, rea, Reading First
Posted in Assessment and Testing, Research and Reports | No Comments »
I’m almost sorry I chose to be on the north rim of the Grand Canyon when my home state of New York announced that universal proficiency is nigh. Better than four out of five public school students in the Empire State are suddenly at or above grade level in math up from 73 percent last year while 69 percent of students were at or above state standards.
There’s so much to say about lowering the bar and how the good news doesn’t square with NAEP results, but lots of other commenters including Sol Stern were on the job while I was away:
Sometime in the next decade, the white children of Lake George and the black children of New York City will come face to face with reality. On a high school math Regents test—or on an SAT test, or in a college remediation course—they will discover that they are not quite as proficient as New York State once assured them.
Other fascinating items waiting in my inbox: Karin Chenoweth’s take on the IES Reading First report is crystal clear on what the data shows…and what it doesn’t; and a study shows elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math. Hmmm. I wonder why no one is suggesting copying whatever it is that has helped New York’s teachers do so well.
Nice to be back.
